thank you for your guidance 10W. I take it you are perfect in every way? At least a court would start with the facts and hear both sides. You appear willing to do neither. Vince
Hi Munnyspinner
I've printed your last out so I can refer to it by paragraph treating the quote and your question as one.
Everyone is advising me that I should not spend time and energy on this Forum. I cremated my first wife's mother yesterday, having taken all the responsibility for the arrangements, so the past 6 days have been rather fraught.
Detailed answers to some questions await my getting all the charts, pilot notes, satnav, Pooley's etc from Dundee where they are at present in "lost property"! Snce my possessions include my passport and they fished all the stuff out of G-VINH I wonder exactly what constitutes "lost" in Dundee!
A kind reporter has (BBC radio) posted back my glasses (the spare ones are in my flight bag) and I am torn between straightening them out to see properly and keeping them in their twisted state as a memento. In case anyone is worried I shall have good glasses back before my next flight.
The reason I am continuing to talk is, strangely, it helps me to talk through with interested pilots what happened and with funerals and business commitments I cannot spend any physical time with pilots at the moment. throughout this thread you, munnyspinner, have avoided jumping to conclusions, been considerate to my feelings and made valuable observations. So here goes!
Para 1 - seems endless, but it is only 5 1/2 days since the "event"
Para 2 - I was advised to do a "Long Final" by the tower staying North of Dundee. I did not like the look of the oil rigs, a mast and the Tay bridge for a "long Final". Once under my instructor I called a "long final" from about 1.5 miles and he said that this was really only for airliners. On spotting what looked to be a house, office and obstruction free path to the Tay between the city and the oil complex I made a 90deg right turn at 30 degrees bank (onto South) towards the river. Immediately before the turn my LH fuel sightglass showed 5 litres plus. At the completion of the turn the engine stopped. I glanced at the sightglass and it was empty! After the engine cut I called my Mayday trimmed at zero deg flaps (CT flies on negative 12) and appraised. Although the sightglass now had the same level of fuel restored I had to choose against a restart procedure in case it didn't and I was losing valuable height. That was a was judgement call. The engine could have stopped for a number of reasons some of which would prevent a restart. The dunes offered nowhere to land; the river was a marginal reach and there was a road in the undershoot zone. I turned 180degrees (now heading North) in the glide towards a cropfield I observed before the turn. However the loss of height now ruled this out - and there was a small housing estate in the undershoot zone. I radioed "negative cropfield". To my right I had some inviting playing fields but they had both soccer and rugby goalposts and a load of players on them. Then I called Tower and said I was trying a golf course. It was the last option, but as I got closer I saw that it was absolutely teeming with players. Sods Law. It was the club's Competition day so instead of the odd pair of golfers I might have been able to miss there were dozens. So not wanting to kill anyone I chose the tree. I have not read the particular Biggles story since I was around 14 but, Biggles loses his engine over a wood and is unable to glide free. (Someone earlier challenged whether he was in an SE5a as he "flew" mostly Camels, but I recall it was the SE). Into my mind came his manoeuvre - viscious side slip (CT jumped like a frightened rabbit as I snapped on full aileron Right and kicked full rudder left!) then pull back the stick to reduce speed and "pancake" flat into the tree. I recall Biggles being concerned that after hitting the tree he would slide down backwards and break his neck. Fortunately in my case the momentum of the engine and the light weight of the airframe "pulled" the aircraft forward and more level and it balanced on branches at a nasty 30ish degree of bank from the sideslip. From the pictures you can see that the plane has broken its back DOWN (ie towards the undercarriage) as it was the bottom of the fuselage that struck. Biggles of course was fictional, but the RFC stories by Capt W E Johns are almost (as far as I know all) actual stories of airmen who did these things. that is why his descriptions of flying read so well to a modern pilot (always bearing in mind the differences in machines).
No heroism, just following the mental MayDay checklist.
Para 3 - I should prefer to answer these questions with reference to my chart as this is not a geographical area I am familiar with. I have not seen the charts since before the "landing". All I can remember is that when deciding that 50 min was inadequate for Kinloss I flew east for a while whilst reading Pooleys on Dundee, checking the chart, resetting satnav for Dundee etc. the result was that I ended to the North of the city and approached the field from that side. With 50 min fuel and Dundee not far there was no rush.
4. I was on straight line from Barrow to Kinloss. At Barrow (great airfield and great people) when reviewing my flight plan we discussed where to uplift AvGas, there being nowhere obvious for mogas. This discussion was with two experienced pilots, one an instructor, who are the Manager and the Head of Operations. they recommended Dundee (flying North or South) so it became my planned divert. To me the recommended - and closest - choice was Dundee.
5. In the past couple of months or so I have flown to Inverness, to Woodvale, to Old Sarum, to Lydd and various others from Damyn's. Flying to Budapest (via St Johann in Austria) was a highlight of my training and really awoke me to the fact that the CT is a practical and "fun" way of getting around. If I had had a surface map of where I was I would certainly not have been there - even in a twin it was dodgy!! Yes, hindsight is a great aid - if I had been really short of fuel I would have asked the airfield for an immediate landing. If I had known that the clonker was going to stop clonking I'd have kept the 5,000 feet I had at the start and landed safely. If I'd known that it was competition day at the golf course (no NOTAM on that) I'd have gone to another tree so as not to disturb them!
6. Split tank, heavy fuel load, spark. rather not think about that one thank you!
I rate my former instructor as one of the very best ever. His MayDay training kept me calm and focussed on a tricky series of decisions.
Perhaps some of the other contributors to this thread might also have had similar experiences where the training took over and disaster was avoided? Be nice to hear from them. Vince